Marissa Meyer's version of Rapunzel has some long locks, but not so much that letting down her hair would reach the ground from space.

Meyer uses the fairy tale as inspiration for the third book in her young-adult series The Lunar Chronicles, Cress (due Feb. 4), much like she did for the first two books, Cinder (her version of Cinderella) and Scarlet (which borrows from Red Riding Hood).

Instead of being cooped up in a tower like Rapunzel, Cress is stuck in an orbiting satellite while a war rages between Earth and the moon colony of Luna, led by the cruel Queen Levana.

Cress also happens to be a really excellent computer hacker, Meyer says, "and unfortunately, that skill has now put her in the care of the evil queen, so she's being forced to spy on the people and the leaders of Earth and report back." (The character is named after watercress — like rapunzel, it's a type of lettuce.)

Meyer will wrap up the series in early 2015 with Winter — her take on the Snow White legend — and already, her Lunar Chronicles novels have been optioned for a movie series. While the studio involved is still a secret, "I believe they're looking for a director at this point," says the author, who's halfway through the second draft of her final novel.

"I know what elements of the early books are foreshadowing bigger things to come, so I would assume that for them, having all the material in front of them could help them make decisions for the movies as well."

Meyer talks to USA TODAY about what's to come in Cress and when fans will meet the fourth heroine of her saga, and scroll to the bottom for an exclusive excerpt:

Q: Will Cress be more sci-fi than Scarlet or Cinder?

A: We are moving into more sci-fi elements. There is more time spent on the spaceship that we were introduced to in Book 2, and of course the satellite and the computer hacking. It still stays pretty focused on the characters and the different human things that they're facing as opposed to the technology.

Q: How is Cress similar to the Rapunzel we all know and love?

A: In the fairy tale, the prince finds Rapunzel because he hears her singing. I've taken that and given Cress this very overactive imagination that's a result of being stuck in this satellite solitary for so long. When she is in danger or in an uncomfortable situation, she goes into this imaginary world where she pretends she's an opera singer or an actress or a dancer. She has this fantasy life going on in her head that played off the original tale and how Rapunzel liked to sing.

Q: Does Cress borrow from the original fairy tale more or less than Cinder and Scarlet did?

A: I'd say it's pretty comparable. As with all of the books, I've taken the iconic moments of the fairy tale and then gone off on my own after that. You still have the tower symbolism and this witch who's keeping her there. Rapunzel still has long, flowing locks of hair. Those iconic moments are still there, but then it does take on a life of its own in the world as she meets up with Cinder and Scarlet and the other characters.

Q: What can you tease about that meeting?

A: Things fall apart quickly. (Laughs) It happens really early. We start bouncing back and forth between the subplots almost right away.

Q: You started with Cinder, Prince Kai and others in Cinder, added extra characters such as Scarlet and Wolf to your world with Scarlet, and now have even more with Cress. Is it getting tricky to juggle the large ensemble cast?

A: It's definitely a challenge — in particular for me because for the most part, you only have maybe two or three characters in any subplot at any given time. You don't want a reader to be so involved with one story line that they're bored when you go back to another. It requires a lot of playing around with where the different chapters are going to fall. But for me, the biggest reward of being a writer is having this big, messy, complicated plot and then trying to figure out how to tell the story in a way that keeps readers engaged.

Q: Are you using existing folks as a way to introduce Cress and bounce her off people fans already know?

A: There's a lot of that. Some of my biggest influences are Firefly and Sailor Moon, and in both of those, you have these ensemble casts in which the relationships between the characters are so important — and, in many ways, more important than what's happening plotwise. They don't always get along all the time. Seeing how they interact with each other is really my favorite part of the series.

Q: Will we get to meet anybody new in this book who will also play a role in Winter?

A: In addition to Cress, there's a new character named Jacin. He had a really, really tiny role in the first book, but I don't expect anybody to really remember him. He actually takes on a much bigger role than I anticipated. Really, by the end of Book 3, you will have met all of the main characters, including Winter. She has a small part in Book 3, but the chapter she's in might be my favorite chapter of the book because she's a very interesting character and a lot of fun to write.

Q: What can you reveal about her?

A: Winter is the evil queen's stepdaughter. She's lived on Luna in the palace but grown up with her stepmother and seen how, when Levon uses her lunar powers, it's turned her into such a tyrant. Winter has decided never to use her lunar gift. But when a lunar chooses not to use their gift, it slowly starts to drive them crazy, so Winter is afflicted with bad hallucinations, and as the book goes on, her mental state is slowly deteriorating.

Q: You've spent three books and counting with these characters. Are you getting close to realizing the end is near?

A: I definitely think a lot about it. With the fourth book, on one hand, I'll be glad to be done with it, but I'll also miss it, and I know there's going to be times when I think, "Man, I want to write a short story about these characters!" It will be a very bittersweet thing, but it's also very exciting. Writing Book 4 now, you have these expectations about the big climax and all the romantic resolutions, so just trying to think about what I can do to satisfy all the readers who have stuck with it for four books is taking up a lot of my thought power these days.

Q: Do you have a definite ending in place?

A: I'm pretty sure I know how everything's going to go. Some elements have changed, particularly with the specific details. As you're writing, you discover a weakness a character has, and then you want to bring that into the climax somehow.

Q: As far as the Lunar movies go, is the plan to make a full quadrilogy?

A: I would love that. I don't know if they play on making all four, or make one and see how it goes. But I want to see them all!

Q: When you finally signed the deal, did you start dream-casting in your head?

A: I haven't really gone there. A lot of my fans have come up with dream casts, which I think is really fun. It's weird how some of them are so spot-on, and it's like, "Yes, that totally looks like how I imagine Cinder." But then other readers will do these castings where I'm like, "Did we read the same book?"

Q: What's the craziest you've seen?

A: I'm not really good with celebrities, so I never really remember the names, but you see a lot of fan-casting white guys as Kai, who is Asian. That always throws me off a little bit. But they're cute! As long as they're cute …

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Excerpt from Cress (Book 3 in The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer:

"SCREEN FOUR," SAID CRESS, SQUINTING AT THE GRID OF ICONS.

"High Jack to . . . D5."

Without waiting for the animated jester to cartwheel to his new space, she shifted her attention to the next game. "Screen five. Claim rubies and daggers. Discard crowns."

The screen sparkled, but she had already moved on.

"Screen six." She paused, chewing on the tips of her hair. Twelve rows of numbers filled up the screen, some slots left blank, some tinted with colors and patterns. After her brain twisted around an equation she wasn't sure she could have done a second time, the puzzle lit up before her, the solution as clear as a moonrise over Earth. "3A, insert yellow 4.7B is black 16. 9G is black 20." The grid melted away, replaced with a second era singer swooning into a microphone, the audience swelling with applause.

"Congratulations, Big Sister," said Little Cress. "You won!"

Cress's victory was short- lived. She rolled onto her side and reassessed the first game. Seeing the move that Little Cress had made since her last turn squelched her pride. She'd backed herself into a corner. "Screen one," she murmured, swooping her hair over one shoulder and mindlessly knotting the dampened ends around her fingers. Five knots later and her victory on screen six was forgotten. Little Cress was going to win this one.

She sighed and made the best move she could, but it was immediately followed by Little Cress's king moving to the center of the holographic labyrinth and claiming the golden chalice. A laughing jester appeared, gobbling down the rest of the game board.

Cress groaned and pulled her hair off her neck, waiting for whatever task her younger self would randomly select for her.

"I won!" said Little Cress, once the holograph had disappeared back into the screen. The other games automatically locked themselves. "You now owe me ten minutes of country- western line dancing, as guided by the following video, followed by thirty jump- squats. Let's begin!"

Cress rolled her eyes, wishing she hadn't been quite so perky when she'd recorded the voice. But she did as she was told, sliding off the bed as a mustached man in a large hat appeared on the screens, thumbs hooked into his belt loops.

A couple years ago, upon realizing that her living accommodations offered few opportunities to be active, Cress had gone on a fitness kick. She'd installed all the games with a program that chose from a variety of fitness activities, which she would be required to perform from every time she lost. Though she'd often regretted the program, it did help keep her from becoming cemented to her chair, and she kind of enjoyed the dancing and yoga routines. Although she was not looking forward to those jump- squats.

Just as the twang of a guitar announced the start of the dance, a loud chime delayed the inevitable. Thumbs locked into her pretend- belt loops, Cress glanced around at the screens.

"Little Cress, what—"

"We have received a direct communication link request from Unknown User: Mechanic."

Her insides spun as if she'd just done a back flip.

Mechanic.

With a cry, she half stumbled, half fell toward the smallest screen, hastily tapped in the fitness- routine override code, checked the firewall and privacy settings, and saw it. A D-COMM request, and the most innocent of questions.

A C C E P T ?

Mouth dry, Cress smoothed both palms over her hair. "Yes! Accept!"

The window faded away, replaced with blackness, and then—

And then—

There he was.

Carswell Thorne.

He was tilted back in a chair, the heels of his boots propped up in front of the screen. Three people stood close behind him, but all Cress could see were the blue eyes staring back at her, directly back at her, beginning to fill with the same breathless awe she felt.

The same wonder.

The same enchantment.

Though they were separated by two screens and vast amounts of empty space, she could feel the link being forged between them in that look. A bond that couldn't be broken. Their eyes had met for the first time, and by the look of pure amazement on his face, she knew he felt it too.

Heat crept up into her cheeks. Her hands began to shake.

"Aces," Carswell Thorne murmured. Dropping his feet to the ground, he leaned forward to inspect her closer. "Is that all hair?"

The bond snapped, the fantasy of one perfect true- love moment disintegrating around her.

Sudden, overwhelming panic clawed up Cress's throat. With a squeak, she ducked out of view of the camera and scrambled beneath the desk. Her back struck the wall with a thud that rattled her teeth. She crouched there, skin burning hot and pulse thundering as she took in the room before her— the room that he was now seeing too, with the rumpled bedcovers and the mustached man on all the screens telling her to grab her imaginary partner and swing them around.

"Wha—where'd she go?" Thorne's voice came to her through the screen.

"Honestly, Thorne." A girl. Linh Cinder? "Do you ever think before you speak?"

"What? What did I say?"

" 'Is that all hair?' "

"Did you see it? It was like a cross between a magpie nest and ball of yarn after it's been mauled by a cheetah."

A beat. Then, "A cheetah?"

"It was the first big cat that came to mind."

Cress hurriedly tried to finger- comb the tangles around her ears. Her hair hadn't been cut since she'd been put into the satellite and now hung past her knees, but Sybil didn't bring sharp objects into the satellite and Cress had long ago stopped worrying about keeping it neatly braided. After all, who was going to see her?

Oh, to have styled her hair that morning. To have worn the dress that didn't have a hole in the collar. Had she even brushed her teeth since she'd eaten breakfast? She couldn't remember, and now she was sure that she had bits of spinach from her freeze- dried eggs Florentine stuck between them.

"Here, let me speak to her."

Shuffling from the screen.

"Hello?" A girl again. "I know you can hear me. I'm sorry my friend is such a wing nut. You can just ignore him."

"That's usually what we do," said the other feminine voice.

Cress searched hastily for a mirror or anything that could pass for one.

"We need to talk to you. I'm . . . This is Cinder. The mechanic who fixed the android?"

The back of Cress's hand smacked into her clothes hamper. It collided with her wheeled chair, which was launched halfway across the room where it hit the far desk and sent a half- full cup of water tipping and wobbling. Cress froze, her eyes going wide as the glass teetered toward the memory drive that housed Little Cress.

"Um, hello? Is this a good time?"

The cup came to rest straight and still once more, not a drop having spilled.

Cress slowly exhaled.

This was not how this meeting was supposed to go. This was not the fantasy she'd dreamed up a hundred times. What had she said in all those dreams? How had she acted? Who had that person been?

All she could think of was the burning mortification of the country- western dancer (now face your partner and do- si- do!) and her magpie- nest hair, her sweating palms and her deafening pulse.

She squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to focus, to think.

She was not a silly little girl hiding beneath her desk. She was— she was—

An actress.

A gorgeous, poised, talented actress. And she was wearing a sequined dress that sparkled like stars, one that would mesmerize anyone who saw her. She was not one to question her own power to charm those around her, any more than a thaumaturge would question her ability to manipulate a crowd. She was breathtaking. She was—

Still hiding under the desk.

"Are you there?"

A snort. "Yeah, this is going really well." Carswell Thorne.

Cress flinched, but her breaths were becoming less sporadic as she cocooned herself in the fantasy. "This is a drama set," she whispered, quiet enough that they couldn't hear her. She forced it into her imagination. This was not her bedroom, her sanctuary, her prison. This was a drama set, with cameras and lights and dozens of directors and producers and android- assistants milling about.

And she was an actress.

"Little Cress, pause fitness programming."

The screens halted, the room going silent, and Cress crawled out from beneath the desk.

Cinder was sitting before the screen now, with Carswell Thorne hovering over her shoulder. Cress glanced at him long enough to catch a smile that was perhaps meant to be apologetic, but only served to make her heart skitter.

"Hi," said Linh Cinder. "Sorry to surprise you like that. Do you remember me? We spoke a couple weeks ago, on the day of the coronation and—"

"Y-yes, of course," she stammered. Her knees started to shake as she surreptitiously dragged her chair back toward her and sat down. "I'm glad you're all right." She forced herself to focus on Linh Cinder. Not on Carswell Thorne. If she only refrained from meeting his gaze again, she would manage. She would not fall apart.

And yet the temptation to fi x her eyes on him was still there, tugging at her.

Cress realized her words had come out all mushed together, and she reminded herself to enunciate when she was playing such a sophisticated role. She forced herself to sit up a bit straighter.

"I follow all the newsfeeds," she clarified. "I knew you were spotted in France, and I've been tracking your ship, so I knew it hadn't been destroyed, but I still didn't know whether you'd been injured, or what had happened, and I've been trying to establish the D-COMM link but you never responded." She deflated a little, her fingers tying knots into her hair. "But I am glad to see that you're all right."

She opened her mouth, but shut it a moment later when no sound followed. Finally, she managed a brittle nod.

Thorne squinted at her as if trying to figure out if she were lying. Or merely an idiot.

She longed to crawl back beneath the desk.

"Really," he drawled. "And who do you work for again?"

You are an actress. An actress!

"Mistress," she said, forcing the word. "Mistress Sybil. She ordered me to find you, but I haven't told her anything— and I won't, you don't have to worry about that. I— I've been jamming the radar signals, making sure surveillance satellites are faced the other way when you pass, that sort of thing. So no one else could find you." She hesitated, realizing that four faces were gaping at her as if all her hair had just fallen out. "You must have noticed that you haven't been caught yet?"

Lifting an eyebrow, Cinder slid her gaze over to Thorne, who let out a sudden laugh.

"All this time we thought Cinder was casting some witchy spell on the other ships and it's been you?"

Cinder frowned, but Cress couldn't tell who her annoyance was directed at. "I guess we owe you a huge thanks."

Cress's shoulders jerked into an uncomfortable shrug. "It wasn't that difficult. Finding you was the hardest part, but anyone could have figured it out. And sneaking ships around the galaxy is something Lunars have been doing for years."

"I have a price on my head large enough to buy the Province of Japan," said Cinder. "If anyone could have figured it out, they would have by now. So, really, thank you."

A blush crept down her neck.

Thorne jabbed Cinder in the arm. "Soften her up with flattery. Good strategy."

Cinder rolled her eyes. "Look. The reason we're contacting you is because we need your help. Evidently more than I realized."

"Yes," Cress said emphatically, unwrapping the hair from her wrists. "Yes. Whatever you need."

Thorne beamed. "See? Why can't you all be this agreeable?"

The second girl smacked him on the shoulder. "She doesn't even know what we want her to do yet." Cress really looked at her for the first time. She had curly red hair, a collection of freckles over her nose, and curves that were unfairly exaggerated next to Cinder, who was all angles in comparison. The man beside her dwarfed them both and had brown hair that stuck up in every direction, faded scars that hinted at more than his share of scuffles, and a recent bruise on his jaw.

Cress tried her best to look confident. "What do you need help with?"

"When I talked to you before, on the day of the ball, you told me that you've been spying on Earth's leaders and reporting back to Queen Levana. And you also knew that once Levana became empress, she planned on having Kai assassinated so she could have total control of the Commonwealth and use that power to launch a full- scale attack on the other Earthen countries."

Cress nodded, perhaps too vigorously.

"Well, we need the people of Earth to know what lengths she's willing to go to in order to stake claim to Earth, not just the Commonwealth. If the other leaders knew that she's been spying on them all this time, and that she has every intention of invading their countries the first chance she gets, there's no way they would condone this wedding. They wouldn't accept her as a world leader, the wedding would be canceled, and . . . with any luck, that'll give us a chance to . . . er. Well, the ultimate goal is to dethrone her entirely."

Cress licked her lips. "So . . . what do you want me to do?"

"Evidence. I need evidence of what Levana's planning, of what's she's been doing."

Pondering, Cress sank back in her chair. "I have copies of all the video surveillance from over the years. It would be easy to pull up some of the most incriminating vids and send them to you over this link."

"That's perfect!"

"It's circumstantial, though. It would only prove that Levana is interested in what the other leaders are doing, not necessarily that she plans on invading them, and I don't think I have any documentation about her wanting to murder His Majesty, either. It's largely my own suspicions, and speculation on the things my mistress has said."

"That's fine, we'll take whatever you have. Levana already attacked us once. I don't think Earthens will take much convincing that she would do it again."

Cress nodded, but her enthusiasm had waned. She cleared her throat. "My mistress will recognize the footage. She'll know it was me who gave it to you."

Cinder's smile began to fade, and Cress knew she didn't need to clarify her point. She would be killed for her betrayal.

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Excerpt from Cress (Book 3 in The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer. Copyright 2014 by Marissa Meyer. Reprinted with permission from Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group